Human Rights Commission: "Need to Raise Retirement Age to 65 for Newly Hired Cleaning Workers"

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRCK) stated on the 18th that it is necessary to raise the retirement age of newly hired cleaning workers to 65 years old.

Yonhap News

On the same day, the NHRCK expressed the view that the retirement age of newly hired cleaning workers after the conversion of non-regular workers in the public sector to regular workers should be applied at 65 years old, the same as that of converted workers.

The petitioner, a cleaning worker newly hired at a university, filed a complaint with the NHRCK, arguing that the university, the respondent, set the retirement age of newly hired workers at 60 years old, unlike the 65 years set for regular converted workers, which constitutes discrimination.

The NHRCK judged that the university set the retirement age of all university public service workers at 60 years old according to employment regulations, and that the retirement age for regular converted public service workers was determined considering past working conditions at the time of conversion, so the respondent's actions did not constitute discriminatory behavior·and dismissed the complaint.

The NHRCK determined that since cleaning work is a priority occupation for quasi-elderly and elderly workers, and considering that extending the retirement age for regular workers is more beneficial to workers than reemploying retirees as fixed-term workers, and that differences in retirement age within the same occupation can lead to loss of work motivation, it is necessary to review raising the retirement age of newly hired cleaning workers to 65 years old as well.